The regime meticulously documented what happened "to make sure that everyone does what they're supposed to be doing," one activist said

Published at 11:23 AM EDT on Mar 29, 2018

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In this Dec. 5, 2016, file photo, a man walks by posters of Syrian President Bashar Assad with Arabic that reads "Homeland, honor, fidelity. Together we will build it," in Aleppo, Syria.

A trove of leaked photos and documents form a "paper trail of war crimes" by the Syrian government that give stronger evidence than what convicted the Nazis at Nuremberg, according to the human rights group processing them.

NBC News reported that the 140-person Commission for International Justice and Accountability has been documenting human rights abuses by Syrian officials since civil war broke out there in 2011. One source is roughly 50,000 photos shot by a forensic photographer known as "Caesar" at the start of the conflict that allegedly catalogue nearly 7,000 victims of torture at the hands of pro-regime forces.

Directives from the government were meticulously documented, even involving torture, "to make sure that everyone does what they're supposed to be doing," Deputy Director Chris Engels said.

While Assad has disputed the photos' veracity, Human Rights Watch, the FBI and the U.N. have verified them in part.